Inspiration is a spark. A flash of light. Ignition. But without the proper mixture of oxygen and fuel, inspiration both lives and dies in the same instant. My life, my experiences, my research; these things are fertile soil for the great blog posts hidden within me. I carry them always and they are present when I sit down to do my work.

But all too often, it’s a struggle. The raw material is there, but the inspiration is not. The oxygen is abundant, but the fuel is scarce. And I’m left wondering, “How?”

How do I harvest? How do I sift and pan? How do I mine the caverns within me for intellectual and emotional gems? How do I… write?

Or perhaps a better question is, how do you? Yes, you, my kindred blog reader. Surely, you are similar. Surely, you’ve wrestled the Great Muse down to the dusty earth, and won.

I know this: it starts before I sit down to type. Great posts begin with significant life challenges. With weighty problems to solve. With an urgent need or a mature discontent with the way things are today. Yes, I think all great posts begin before words are written.